What EFI setup are you running?

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Graminizer

Graminizer

The "Big G"
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With all the different types of EFI systems out there, it's hard to tell which one to go with.....Holley Terminator, Edelbrock E street, FAST EZ EFI, MSD Atomic, etc. What are you guys running and what do you like/dislike about them? Thanks guys!
 
I started with a used Holley Commander 950 and ended up upgrading the ECU to the Holley HP

The Terminator, Avenger, and HP are all related. The Dominator is a different ECU. I VERY nearly went with Megasquirt

The Holley systems are VERY configurable. My HP is currently TBI, fired off the coil with breakerless Mopar distr. driving an HEI. The Holley can run TBI or multiport, and comes with a WB O2 setup.
 
1990 GMC OBD1 TBI; heated O2, speed sensor, knock sensor. GM harness

Using it on a 65 273 2 barrel intake, 4.3L injectors, 4.5L Cad map sensor.
 
70aarcuda said:
http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/1403_car_crafts_giant_efi_test/
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Graminizer said:
Good read....answered some of my questions.....thanks 70aarcuda!
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There is at least one MISTAKE in that article. The Holley they tested is NOT THE SAME ECU as the Dominator.

The HP ECU I use is indeed the same for several systems, but the Dominator is a DIFFERENT, and larger, more capable ECU. Frankly, most of us would never need the Dominator features

The thing is I can never keep all the combos straight..............The basic system uses the same HP ECU with a basic handheld controller, but THAT can be upgraded to the larger touchscreen or laptop (which I use)

The same Holley HP ECU can also do basic TBI with coil fired ignition, or upgrade one notch to spark control, or upgrade to multiport, all from one box.
 
What engine are you thinking about installing efi on? We purchased the FAST EZ EFI 2.0 system for our '70 Roadrunner with a 383. There are several issues not covered in that Car Craft article. - (Although it is one of the more informative I've read)

We bought the entire system from FAST that included the in-tank fuel pump. Our Roadrunner had a factory 1/4" return line that we had to replace because it was smaller than the 5/16" line that FAST recommended. So, we replaced the factory return line with a second 3/8" (feed) fuel line that we had previously bought for our '68 Charger but not yet installed.

The Roadrunner had a new fuel tank under it and we didn't realize when we bought the kit that we were going to have to cut a hole in the top of it to install the pump assembly. Everything turned out nice, but it was a bit of a project making the needed modifications.

The pre-made wiring harnesses were very odd lengths. The power leads to the battery were barely long enough as were the wires to the O2 sensor and fuel pump. The wiring to the fuel pressure sensor was probably 15' too long. I realize that the lengths needed would be different for each application and how you choose to route your wiring, but the lengths supplied limited our installation choices.

My son wanted to utilize the ECU's ability to control timing. It is optional with the FAST system. We were already running an MSD Digital control box and billet distributor. After talking with the FAST tech support, we were told that this was an ideal setup to use but that we needed to purchase a phasable rotor. (we already knew that we had to lock out the mechanical advance) Not a big issue, but another unforseen delay getting the system running.

The setup wizard guided us through everything simply enough until it came to coordinating the ECU with the engine's timing. The ECU 'locks' the ignition timing at 20' at a step in the setup and you're supposed to verify with a timing light that the engine is truly running 20' advanced. We could not adjust the timing (as per tech support's directions) to get the ECU to agree with the timing light. So, we were told by FAST tech support to fudge the physical rotation of the distributor as best we could to get close. It took hours of tinkering with it to get a setting that would run acceptably. The tech support did tell me that these issues wouldn't have come up if we had purchased the FAST pre-phased distributor.

We were very pleased with the performance of the car once we took it out and made a few adjustments. We didn't dyno the car but it was obvious that we had picked up a lot of power. Very responsive.

But the system still had glitches. At first we tried playing around with wiring routing to eliminate potential interference because everything we were told or read said that these systems were very particular about noise. Now and then the car (though running great) would seem to stutter. It seemed to happen most often around 2200 RPM while moving at a steady speed but not always. We never noticed it during acceleration.

My son decided to switch out the MSD billet distributor for the one from FAST (another $400).

As you might expect, nothing seems to ever be engineered specifically for Mopar. I assume that's why the FAST distributor gave us problems. For starters, it would NOT drop into the motor. The distributor body was too large in diameter where the o-ring seal is. It was close, but we would have had to drive it in even without the o-ring in place. So we used some emery cloth to sand it until it would drop in. That's when we found out that the diameter of the distributor was too large for the (Chevy style) distributor cap to clear the stock head. So, we ground the head for clearance. We didn't have much, but it was barely enough to be able to rotate the distributor to set timing. We also had to move our wires in the cap to do this.

At this point we thought we had all of our problems solved. That is until we went back through the ECU's setup wizard again. We could not get the ECU to control timing after telling it that we were running the FAST distributor. We tried several times before putting the MSD distributor back in. When I get more time I will try to troubleshoot the problem again. - But the car is about 200 miles away from me at my son's apartment in Des Moines, Iowa.

I think the FAST system is very good for the efi but if I had my choice I would leave all of the timing controls to MSD. In all of the articles I've read the FAST system performs great, but I have yet to read one that speaks of testing with their timing controls.
 
Wow, thanks for the write-up 1967'cuda. I was thinking about efi and was leaning towards FAST EZ EFI. They make it sound like all you have to do is plug it in. Should take just a few hours. It's good to see what it takes in the real world. I need to research this more now.
 
PA Dodger said:
Wow, thanks for the write-up 1967'cuda. I was thinking about efi and was leaning towards FAST EZ EFI. They make it sound like all you have to do is plug it in. Should take just a few hours. It's good to see what it takes in the real world. I need to research this more now.
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It would be possible to do an install in a few hours if you had everything you needed and didn't run into problems. If you ran a returnless fuel system with an inline pump would save time. It would also save a bunch of time if you weren't setting it up to control ignition timing. Of course if you just wanted to wire tie everything in place you would save a lot of time too.

One thing that I hadn't mentioned before was the need to drill a 2" diameter hole in the firewall for the wires to run through. We ran our hole very low (out of sight) on the passenger side below the heater box. And another thing I failed to mention is that we ended up having to replace the water pump housing because the original fitting for temperature was seized up and we couldn't get it out. We installed an aluminum housing that was slated for use in our Charger. One of the good things about swapping it out was that we gained a 'second' fitting location so that we could still run our factory water temperature gauge.

I'm sure that most folks interested in spending this much for a system are going to want the cleanest looking assembly they can get. That of course takes time. And with the odd lengths of wiring included with the harness, we had to lay everything out first to help decide where to mount the ECU. FAST really discourages you from doing any splicing.

I DO like this FAST system (not sure yet about their timing controls). But we didn't take any shortcuts on the install. - And we initially thought we'd have it all done in a half a day too.

But, we didn't know that their fuel pump was going to take a major modification to our tank. We didn't know we needed a phasable rotor. We didn't know we were going to have to replace the return line to the tank. We didn't know we were going to have to replace water pumps. We didn't know we were going to be limited on mounting location by the wiring. And to top it all off, my son decided to run all hoses in braided stainless AN. - And then he decided he wanted the ash tray modified to house the computer screen. If we'd been better prepared I'm sure it would have saved a lot of time.

The pics are of the '70 Roadrunner, the gas tank being modified, the wiring as it was started to be routed, and of the modified ash tray.
 

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Thanks for the great info, 1967 'cuda! I know it's just a preference, but I really dislike the look of the FAST tbi unit. Is it just me? LOL. I'm leaning towards either the Edelbrock or Holley setup. Not interested in the timing controls. I'm also leaning towards the Aeromotive Phantom fuel pump. My tank is already out, so this seems to be the best route.
 
Graminizer said:
Thanks for the great info, 1967 'cuda! I know it's just a preference, but I really dislike the look of the FAST tbi unit. Is it just me? LOL. I'm leaning towards either the Edelbrock or Holley setup. Not interested in the timing controls. I'm also leaning towards the Aeromotive Phantom fuel pump. My tank is already out, so this seems to be the best route.
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The looks didn't matter to my son as much as the advertized horsepower capabilities. Everything is pretty much hidden under the air cleaner anyway. Although that 383 isn't putting out anywhere near 1000 HP, he thought that a someday Hemi transplant might be in the future and wanted to make sure he'd have enough fueling capacity. The 8 injectors is what sold him.
 
Oh, one other thing that should be a major factor in deciding which unit to go with is adaptability. Some EFIs are advertized as incompatible with forced induction engines or nitrous. And some are adaptable to port injection. The FAST system we bought was not.
 
1967 'cuda said:
The FAST system we bought was not.
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That's the thing. I'm not familiar with Edelbrock, but the Holley system is VERY adaptable. If you don't mind chopping up the harness, (and you can buy an unterminated one) it is VERY adaptable.

I do have some minor complaints about Holley, but some are "workable."

The O2 sensor is proprietary, which I personally think is B.S. They claim they are "individually calibrated." Not sure I believe that

The Optional (separate) O2 display gauge.........Holley did not put the wiring in the harness, and is supposed to send the extra wire with the gauge. This means not only must you tear into the harness and connector, but that you cannot adapt a brand X gauge. It might just be--and I intend to find out--that the Innovate gauge I have is the same output range!!

Holley does not supply all documentation in "easily handled" form, I printed or at least pdf. Some of the docs (help files) are built into the software. Now I'm a "printed paper" kinda guy. But a little Google showed me that I could extract the help file and print it out. This turned out to be a big help (for me)

I've heard bitching that the Holley system has no native support for the late hemis. Really all this means is, you have to round up the proper hardware and wire it yourself.......there is no native "plug and play" harness to interface the holley EFI with the Mopar harness / sensors.

And, the ECU is not repairable, it's potted. At the cost of these, not sure I'm too happy with that. There was one guy over at the Holley forums who'd messed up the USB connector. Not a good deal.

I had "buyer's remorse" for a short time after buying mine, but have since warmed up. I've seen some "good" comments about how quickly the Holley system can correct itself.

I STILL KEEP Megasquirt in the back of my mind. If I get "time and money" I'm still thinking of picking one up to play with.
 
FAST EZ EFI here. It was simply plug and play for me. Wasn't hard at all and worked like a charm right out the bag. Follow the instructions to a tee and it was fine. Im very pleased with setup. Just a little dissapointed that they came out with the 2.0 version a month after I got my setup. I would have waited a month for the new one.
 

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71swing said:
FAST EZ EFI here. It was simply plug and play for me. Wasn't hard at all and worked like a charm right out the bag. Follow the instructions to a tee and it was fine. Im very pleased with setup. Just a little dissapointed that they came out with the 2.0 version a month after I got my setup. I would have waited a month for the new one.
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71, can I see your air filter setup, please?
 
another happy EZ EFI camper here.

had one sensor go bad in a rain storm, autozone had it. ( probably because they are out in the open )

Went with the rock valley tank - they have an in tank setup that has a baffle in it that cures the number one problem with retro efi setups - fuel starvation.

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That was not out when I did mine. Seems like a similar idea but I'm not sure if the foam will do quite the same as the coil that rock valley has. You have to let us know how it works.
 
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